I was chit chatting with one of the array of municipal candidates and I found myself saying, “yes, that would be a good idea to visit so and so because you’re ‘easy on the eyes’.”

Now the readers of the Newburyport Blog may be scratching their heads and saying, who?? Who of this municipal array that has pulled papers or is likely to pull papers is “easy on the eyes?”

Maybe we will have a municipal “easy on the eyes” contest. Wouldn’t that be fun?

The municipal candidate in question wondered out loud to me about my assessment of themselves (the “easy on the eyes” thing).

Being the editor of the Newburyport Blog has been great, but I’ve noticed that every now and then that I get weighed down, like with this peccadillo stuff, watch every word I say, much less every word I write. Silly goes out the window. The weight of whatever sinks in. And I remind myself that the Newburyport Blog is a sideline and is supposed to be fun

And just as a btw, the “easy on the eyes” bit got lodged into my brain due to a correspondence regarding my 23 year old son, who is acting his heart out in NYC.

I got a wonderful email from a woman involved in the theater, who has a small production space that my son had briefly appeared in. This lovely lady went on to praise my son, which of course I loved, what mother would not. And she ended the email by remarking that my son was “easy on the eyes.”

Ever since then “easy on the eyes” has been wedged into my wits, and I guess it just popped out chit chatting with a Newburyport municipal candidate.

And later that night I found myself downright giggling, if not outright laughing at myself, that I would say something to anybody like “easy on the eyes,” because it was a quintessential, quirky Mary Baker Eaton thing to say. It was moi. (Remember, I have a stuffed frog for a political consultant for goodness sakes.)

And I was very relieved. Because if I don’t keep my sense of silly in all of this, I am in danger of having not just a “few peccadilloes,” but of turning into a dreary peccadillo possible porcupine. Which would be no fun at all, because peccadilloes popping up like porcupine quills tend to pop exuberant balloons.

Ouch.

Mary Eaton
Newburyport